Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Southwest Utah - first half

Back for some more very-delayed blogging about last summer!

At the end of July, we headed in the direction of Colorado.  Luckily, Utah is on the way, so we stayed a few nights in Cedar City.

While driving there, we found this excellent (and new, I think) Electrify America charging station, complete with a solar awning - nice!  Shade plus power from the sun, also pull-through spots.  It's almost like the gas station model has some advantages...


On to the rocks!  I enjoyed roaming all over the Cedar City trails and finding new shapes and fun colors (things that Utah does so well):


Thor apparently has a vacation throne here?


Geology is way more interesting in the real world compared to reading books in school:


Especially when the informational sign is well designed and placed:


A mural near the visitor center that made me smile:


I'd had Snow Canyon State Park on my radar for a while, time to go explore another piece of Utah:


John could sleep here:


But maybe not if this guy has anything to say about it:


Lava!  A sharp (literally) contrast to the sandstone:


In our happy place:


Unique trail marker:


Possibly part of a lava tube:


The entrance to a lava tube, one of several unexpected things we found in the park:


Shadow selfie - hello world!


Good luck deciphering all the comings and goings:


Some ropy lava sitting on sandstone:


And a good view down the valley:


I'm beginning to wonder if John needs a nap...


This little one was just hanging out (hiding in plain sight?), and with all the bikes on the path I decided to try to convince it to get a move-on.  It finally begrudgingly acquiesced.


A big wall that might have petroglyphs on it somewhere:


We couldn't resist a hike up a volcanic crater, with a view down at Tug-E:


Craters are fun formations to run around on:


Back in Cedar City, we saw this big thing at the Frontier Homestead museum:


It took a couple passes before noticing an adorable bird standing in front of it!


I found a couple interesting-looking FKT's in the area, always a fun excuse to try something new.

The first was the Bryce Canyon Traverse Duathlon:

This looked super fun!  There were no female times (at the time - that didn't last long) and it had several aspects that would be new for me: The trail traversing Bryce Canyon National Park, plus the chance to use my bike to traverse back.

See the link for a summary of my experience and some additional photos, if you're interested.  Bryce is so dang photogenic that I'm including a bunch more pictures here.

Thank you for the awesome assistance, John!


Tall shadow selfie in the early sunlight:


Pointing at a distance point, which I'm guessing I visited later that day:


A surprising addition to the "summer of flowers" picture album:


Hoo doo?  I do!  You can do too!


I tried not to get so distracted by all the amazing shapes, but it's really impossible to avoid.


The lighting changed throughout the day:


Sunshine for now!


The Hat Shop, my new favorite part of the park (which we had not seen before):


Yay for Ponderosas!


The dramatic scenery continues, possibly at Mud Canyon:


Why yes please, I'll take some food and water:


Clouds starting to collect above the rim:


Agua Canyon Connecting Trail - currently closed, no resupply here:


Just one more uphill to Rainbow Point:


I'm amazed this tree is still standing:


Trek complete!


Now for my next trick...


John took a couple pictures during the descent:


And he met me where we started the day, back at Fairyland Point, woo hoo!  That was a fun ride down.


A highly enjoyable adventure!


More FKT action in the next post, which hopefully won't take me another month to write..

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